Politics Unfiltered

[Spyder]

It's a culture of psychopaths that are indoctrinating a new generation of psychopaths. That kind of shit is commendable over there. I watched a really good doc the other night called 'The Act of Killing'. It basically follows around a group of former hit men, and they reenact many of their more gruesome murders. The levity and indifference that they reveal during the "act" is disturbing.

[BrotherCane]

More stuff on the ACA...if these numbers are right and about the same 30% off, they have some issues! As I have said though, they still don't have the back end built!

http://www.caintv.com/aetna-actual-obamacare-enrollm

And they should know because they're the ones not collecting the premiums.

Much of the left has been trying its best to push the notion that "ObamaCare is working," largely based on the announced enrollment total of anywhere from 8 million to 10 million that has come out of the White House. Since this was more than the 7 million they originally said they needed to make the system viable, viola . . . success!

One problem: They counted everyone who enrolled, without regard to whether enrollees ever paid a premium. If you don't pay the premium, you're not insured and you're not part of the system. Thus, your enrollment is meaningless and there's no serious measure that can count you. So how is this phase of the implementation going?

Not well, if the experience of Aetna - one of the largest insurers participating in the system - is any indication. Investors Business Daily reports:

The nation's third-largest health insurer had 720,000 people sign up for exchange coverage as of May 20, a spokesman confirmed to IBD. At the end of June, it had fewer than 600,000 paying customers. Aetna expects that to fall to "just over 500,000" by the end of the year.

That would leave Aetna's paid enrollment down as much as 30% from that May sign-up tally.

"I think we will see some attrition ... We're already seeing it. And we expect that to continue through the end of the year," CEO Mark Bertolini said in a July 29 conference call.

It's not clear how representative Aetna's experience is of broader exchange trends, or whether its projection may be too conservative. (If it were representative, a similar 30% decline would drop ObamaCare enrollment to 6 million or less.)

Still, as one of ObamaCare's largest players, participating in exchanges in 16 states plus D.C., Aetna's experience provides a pretty good window into what is happening across the country, and there are other indications that enrollment has turned down.

Cigna (NYSE:CI) said that it expects its individual market customers, including more than 100,000 in the exchanges, to "move from 300,000 down to 280,000 in that range," Cigna CEO David Cordani said in a conference call.

Other major insurers danced around questions about attrition on recent earnings conference calls, but none denied that it was occurring.

[Decagon]

Poor people getting free health insurance actually makes healthcare cheaper for all. It cuts down on emergency room visits and generally increases the health of the population by helping curb the spread of disease.

[Spyder]

Poor people dying off from diseases saves the taxpayer money too.

[BrotherCane]

(08-12-2014 07:38 PM)Decagon Wrote:  Poor people getting free health insurance actually makes healthcare cheaper for all. It cuts down on emergency room visits and generally increases the health of the population by helping curb the spread of disease.

Yea sure!!!! Only in Utopian dreamland! http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/64372

[salvador]

"If you think healthcare is expensive now, just wait until it's free!"

[Decagon]

(08-12-2014 07:55 PM)Spyder Wrote:  Poor people dying off from diseases saves the taxpayer money too.

Not really. Dying is expensive.

[Spyder]

(08-13-2014 12:01 PM)Decagon Wrote:  

(08-12-2014 07:55 PM)Spyder Wrote:  Poor people dying off from diseases saves the taxpayer money too.

Not really. Dying is expensive.

Not when coupled with all of the years that we won't be paying to keep them alive.

[Decagon]

True. I read a report on smoking's effect on the medical community, and it stated that the monetary cost of providing health care to a smoker is about the same as that of a non-smoker, because smokers die sooner.

[Spyder]

I bet the fatties cost the most.